Charlie Boccanegra | Wed. Feb 14 2018, 10:02 am

The United States and Canada are now both 2-0 in the 2018 Olympic Women's Hockey tournament. Is this a preview of the gold medal game?

The gold medal game of the Women’s Olympic Hockey tournament has been a two-team show since the sport was introduced in 1998. Canada and the United States have dominated every other country they play on the road to the gold medal games. This is the first game between these archrivals at the Pyeongchang Olympic tournament, but almost certainly will not be the last. The game starts late Wednesday evening, at 10:10pm ET.

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Canada vs. United States Odds and Betting Analysis

Now that both of these teams are definitely headed to the semifinals, the final preliminary-round game between these two will be an exciting preview before their probable Olympic gold medal matchup. Because Team USA has recently beaten this Canadian team in International competition, the odds are slightly in favor of the Americans winning this one and they are currently sitting at -131. As of this writing, 85% of bettors are betting on the Canadians to win.

Team Canada

Early this week, Team Canada earned their second win on the way to the semi-final by beating Finland 4-1.

Meghan Agosta got on the scoreboard 35 seconds into the first period, and that set the scoring tone for the game, although the Finnish team didn’t make it easy. Melodie Daoust, Marie-Philip Poulin and Jillian Saulnier each got one past the excellent Finnish netminder Noora Raty, but Finland’s offense was unable to answer beyond the one goal Riikka Valila put past Shannon Szabados in the third.

With that win, Team Canada has outscored their opponents 9-1 in these games. They’ll have to carry that momentum into the preliminary round matchup against their all time greatest rival, Team USA.

Team USA

The United States Olympic Women’s hockey team would love nothing more than to finally destroy Team Canada’s gold medal hopes. American medal standings in the last five Olympics has the women’s team earning one gold and three silvers. If there’s a team that can do it at last, it’s this one. Team USA’s roster looks almost identical to the roster that beat Canada in the Women’s World Hockey Championship back in April of last year.

Players like Amanda Kessel and veteran Hilary Knight were there at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, when Canada overcame the American lead in the gold medal game and won it 3-2 in overtime. They’ll be looking for revenge and they’ll be coming out playing red hot. Team USA has plenty of firepower ready to go against Canada, and in the game against the Olympic Athletes of Russia, which they won 5-0, players like Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson, her sister Monique Lamoureux-Morando and Brianna Decker all looked sharp.